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Targeting the self-published author

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I believe in second chances. I think almost everybody deserves one. Contrary to what some people believe I will give someone the benefit of the doubt almost every time and I struggle when it becomes apparent that the second chance looks to be in vain.

I wanted this one to work, I thought it would but it looks like the path traveled before will be the path traveled again. I guess if you can surround yourself with enough people that tell you you did nothing wrong and all those people who “attacked” you, who “harassed” you, who pointed out your missteps and mistakes were just being “mean” and “jealous” then you can move comfortably ahead down that same path towards the inevitable.

I admired your restart, your dedication to what you built, but maybe the red flags were there in the timeline. You have worked hard but for what end?

Self published authors have a hard time finding bloggers that will review them and here is a shining example of why that is.

Dear author, the everyone is talking about, first I have to address a couple issues with your book. “”What is this?” I asked with in-trepidation.” In-trepidation?No. Please see the definitions below and choose wisely (hint: choose the second).

Simple Definition of intrepid

: feeling no fear : very bold or brave

Simple Definition of trepidation

: a feeling of fear that causes you to hesitate because you think something bad or unpleasant is going to happen

Then there is this sentence, “Do I make you feel things you’ve never felt before?” , I am positive that there are a few talented writers out there that could make this line work but I am equally positive that you aren’t one of them. You can’t even write a decent non-apology.

And now let us speak about that non-apology, it starts out innocently enough, “Dear Authors, Readers, and Bloggers alike, I do want to clear up some misconceptions about all of the things that have been circulating around on social media recently:” And then it rapidly slides down Mount Whatthefuck, ” I’m sorry that you either didn’t enjoy Quinn or simply refuse to read this series due to the latest events that have transpired on social media. I appreciate your true and honest feedback, I truly do.” I suspect that the honest feedback you’ve been getting since your little FB plea has been far, far too honest and if you really appreciate honest feedback than I wouldn’t be writing this.

“People have misconstrued my words on a post that was screen shot and then circulated.First of all, I did not call this particular blogger a bitch. I said “flag that bitch” – it’s a colloquial term – as in “flag that review” – and it was in NO way shape or form meant to demean that particular blogger. One cannot “flag” a person on Goodreads – they can, however, flag “reviews”. Hence : “Flag that review”” Umm, no. Why no? Let us look at a screenshot.

You refer to “some blogger”, then “flag that bitch”. then “People LIKE her review”. Blogger, bitch, her, c’mon do you really think anyone believes you meant the review and not the person?

“I absolutely feel horrid that this blogger thought I had called her that name. For that being taken out of context, I apologize. I would never want to take a hurtful jab at anyone or hurt their feelings. I would never call or think to call anyone, let alone a blogger a bitch. Anyone who knows me, has NEVER seen, read, nor heard me call a person a profanity on any public or personal thread, period. So yes – I screwed up – because Flag that bitch sounds bad any which way you spin it.” Yes, you certainly did screw up and nothing was taken out of context. And here we see the first mention of another problem: the dreaded “anybody who knows me” denial and innocence excuse.

“People who know me – know my heart and soul – and they know I was not coming from a bad place when I posted my request. Believe me when I say I have had my fair share of poor reviews – and I had never before taken action or offense to them over the past two years that I have been writing.” You weren’t coming from a bad place? So, you were filled with joy and love when you called on your fans to “flag that bitch”?

“Yes – I had disagreed with this bloggers review. Just as it is this bloggers right for her to have her own opinion of my book – I felt I had a right to my opinion about her review. Why is that so wrong? Why must I be afraid to not voice my own opinion when readers so clearly can?” Why, oh why, can’t I call the bitch a bitch, you cry. How about because the bitch, uh, reviewer isn’t trying to sell her opinion. You, however, are trying to sell this piece of crap.

“I felt that one particular blogger was making a mockery of me and of my story – This blogger clearly went out of her way to find (in my eyes) demeaning gif’s to compliment each of her derogatory paragraphs in-between. It was my interpretation – just as it was your interpretation that her review was fantastic.” Bless your heart, you can’t count either. There were three gifs, three. Here is the review, please have someone count the paragraphs for you. I guess demeaning is open to interpretation, be happy that none of them were of a pigeon shitting on a book.

“I want to be as open and candid as possible in this situation, because it is only fair for you to see my intentions, and my mistakes for being a human, as well as my remorse. I am woman enough to admit when I am wrong – I most certainly ran on emotions – and afterwards had a smack me in the head moment – because in that moment of emotionalism, I was NOT thinking. I should have contacted that reviewer.” Got news for you, you still aren’t thinking. Contact the reviewer, are you insane? It’s either insane or jaw-dropping stupid. Remember only one of you is trying to sell something. And the reviewer is entitled to her opinion.

“All of the comments thereafter that ensued on this bloggers thread both on Facebook and on Goodreads were distasteful, unprofessional, and frankly I was taken aback. It was to my understanding that there were certain guidelines for one to follow when reviewing books with Sullivan + Partners. I was under the impression bloggers were to first and foremost supposed to communicate with them if they felt the book was under a 3 star read before posting a review. This did not happen.” You do realize you are insulting people again? I think your understanding had less to do with reality and more to do with wishful thinking. And I wonder what Sullivan + Partners think of you right now.

“All of the bloggers that have been working with Sullivan + Partners have been so incredible and professional, even the negative reviews had been so professionally crafted. So I was shocked and taken aback by this particular review, because of the cartoonish tone which was full of satire, and snippets that were taken out of context. Again, this was my own interpretation.” I have some bad news for you, even in context your writing is not all that good. And you really need to familiarize yourself with the idiom “out of context”. You don’t seem to know what it means. And you keep subtly and not so subtly harping on the “unprofessionalism” of the reviewer, I thought you were apologizing?

“I had placed all bloggers working with Sullivan on a pedestal, because even the 2 – 3 star reviews were of quality caliber and objective. When I saw this particular review I had thought surely this reviewer didn’t come from Sullivan.” She read your crappy book, she gets to say it is crappy. Her writing is much better than yours. Much better. Light years better. And she uses the correct words, you need to consult a dictionary. Often.

“Yes – I had asked some of my team members to flag that review – because honestly – it was one of the first reviews I felt was malicious, demeaning, and full of derision, and it hurt. I do have feelings, we all have feelings. However, it may not have been the way you would have handled this situation, but at that particular moment in time, it was my way of handling it – right or wrong -” Call me crazy but I’m not really seeing an apology anywhere in this rambling mess of “it’s everybody’s fault but mine”. Right or wrong? As incredible as it is to me this isn’t your first book and you claim to have had 2 star reviews before so you just decided that you wanted to be the latest snowflake to meltdown? It’s a pretty mild review.

“I’m terribly sorry all these bloggers felt “I took the cake” – as well as jumped to the worst conclusions about me and my character. As I said, if you knew the entire story – both sides of the coin – I don’t believe you would be feeling this way toward me. There is nothing I can do to change your view point of me, and for that I am saddened. I truly am.” If there’s another side to the story then let’s hear it but so far all I’m seeing is excuses. Get to the point.

“I strive very hard to keep all drama off my pages – as well avoiding all forms of gossip, calling people names, publicly calling people out, or having malicious intent to down others. I have been nothing but supportive of readers, authors and bloggers alike.” This is my first encounter with you and you are presenting yourself as a whining entitled snowflake. Good first impression.

“We all sin and fall short of the Glory of God, do we not? Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. Why is it okay for both readers and bloggers alike to now trash me – publicly circulating only half the story – all the while “judging” me and running me down? The anger and derisiveness those people are exuding has been far worse.” If there is another side of the story, get to it. But just because you didn’t like that review is not the other side of the story, it is your excuse for very bad behavior. I heard you didn’t just post a call to arms on FB but you also posted this on Goodreads:

You commented then deleted those comments on reviews on GR you didn’t like, and you were trying to mess with the book database. That is a very big no-no. GR isn’t going to be forgiving. Then you posted this in response to a fan who tried to talk you off the edge:

What’s with the whole real life/fiction thing? She didn’t like your writing. Stop trying to make it something else. And, um, “Fuck that”? What happened to striving not to name call? What happened to keeping it drama free? Honey, you are the 600 lb drama llama of the internet right now.

“I have always taught my children there are 2 sides to every coin and to not make a decision on judging until they know the entire story from both sides. I truly feel that if people knew me – they would have seen this in a different light. I’m just astounded that others who were NOT involved – have chimed in the way they have – quick to judge, and quick to trash me, and my character when they know nothing about me, or the entire situation. Nor do those people know my heart or just how giving of a person I am, nor do they know how much sleep I have lost over this debacle.” We know that you melted down like any other snowflake, asked your fans to flag a review that did not violate GR’s TOS, called reviewers trolls, reviewed your own book and made snotty remarks about readers/reviewers that didn’t like your book, tried to alter the book database, and made this rambling hot mess of excuses and tried to pass it off as an apology. Your character is thinner than the ones in your book.

BTW, people have the right to rate your book however they like and why would anyone recommend your book now? You’ve attacked one reviewer then proceeded to spew over all the one stars. What will you do to the next person who doesn’t like your book?

“Nobody knows how much another person is going through at any given moment in their live. The things within peoples personal life can sometimes stretch a persons ability to deal with certain matters and situations which would normally have been brushed off with ease. This was one of those cases. It is hard for me to believe that nobody has never been short-tempered before, or reacted to something rashly when their mental and physical limits have been stretched so very thin. I am most certain those people would want to have grace and forgiveness displayed to them, and I’m am doubly certain they wouldn’t want one of their most weakest moments spread to all four corners of social media either.” Well, if you flop it out there people are gonna talk. Forgiveness is granted to those who ask but you haven’t asked. It wasn’t a weak moment, once you got started you didn’t seem to know when to quit, or maybe you didn’t want to quit.

“I only wish this person who felt they needed to screen shot a post that was meant for my team – to have come to me personally and had a one on one discussion with me – asking me to explain myself – it would have been the right and professional thing to do, no?” Why is it everybody but you has to be professional? You are the author, sort of, when are you going to be professional? Will it be any time in this decade?

“This entire scenario deeply saddens me, and the outpouring of judgement without asking me my side, is even sadder. I felt I needed to explain my side to you, because I am not “that” author. I am simply not. I may be unfiltered at times, but my heart is genuine, and I would even go so far as to give those who dislike me the shirt off my back.” What side? Did anybody see her side? “Nobody knows how much another person is going through at any given moment in their live. The things within peoples personal life can sometimes stretch a persons ability to deal with certain matters and situations which would normally have been brushed off with ease.” That isn’t your side and it’s a pretty bad piece of writing.

“Now that you have heard the other side of the coin, there will still be people who will hold no grace or forgiveness in their heart. This saddens me as well. Those people will be content to remain angry and “quick to judge” and I cannot fix that or change their mind about me or my character no matter what I do or say.” You cannot change their minds because you have done nothing to show you are sorry for your actions.

“I had a new reader contact me last night. Instead of trashing me publicly, she approached me via messenger to clear the air and her conscious. I so very much appreciated that. She wanted to discuss this with me before passing her own judgement on the situation. I gave her the above letter you just read – and this was her response.” And now you will try to show people the correct, according to you, way to handle their unhappiness with your actions. Here’s the thing, once you put it out in public you don’t have control of the situation anymore.

“READER RESPONSE TO THE ABOVE LETTER

Thank you for responding. And I appreciate you explaining. I see your point; however, it wouldn’t be my way to handle the situation, it was your way and that’s your right.

I certainly understand “things we all go through” as my husband has stage 4 cancer. He is the love of my life and we have been married for 35 years. I am a 54 year old high school registrar, my husband is a teacher. As I said I have always been a reader. It’s my escape to another world and

gives me peace and enjoyment. I had just finished your book this morning and immediately preordered book 2 which I understand to be out on 4/19. I will read it at MD Anderson Cancer Hospital for yet another day of treatment for my husband. For you see even though I didn’t care for your post I am still a fan, a new fan of your work, and I will continue to read your books.

MY RESPONSE:

well, now your making me cry. lol. I am sorry about your husband, and I will most certainly say a prayer for him.

It just saddens me that people just assume I’m calling others a name such as that, and jumping the gun. – when I did not.

Thank you for your kind words – they mean a lot to me right now. Stay strong. xoxo

HER FINAL RESPONSE:

I’m sorry I assumed too much. I saw the post and felt you called the blogger a bitch. I was disappointed because I loved your book so much! If nothing else I got to speak with you and now I know you’re a caring person, a Mom and someone that prays!

Keep writing! You have true talent! God bless”

And we get to see you as a caring, praying mom. Is that reserved only for those that contact you using your approved methods? And what has this to do with making an apology?

“AND THIS ABOVE is why I write. This is what moves me. This brought literal tears to my eyes, because I care about other people, what they are going through, and I care about their pain. I told her I would pray for her and her husband, and I have and will continue to do so.“ Somewhere inside I am outraged by your using God in your petty and outrageous actions against those reviewers who didn’t like your book and/or your actions.

“It’s not about money for me, it’s about connecting with readers who are needing an escape from the realities of life and their own pain even if it’s for a few hours. This is my character , this is the real me, and this new reader touched me on a very deep level. THIS is what it’s all about for me. It’s about connecting with readers and touching their lives in a positive way.” It’s good it’s not about money because I think you tanked this turkey.

“I am only sorry and disheartened your first impression of me was in a negative light. I by no means meant anyone any ill will, harm, or malice. I had acquired all of the participating blogger names to add into the acknowledgement section of both my paperback books and digital books, thank all of you for taking time out of your busy ARC schedule to read for me. All of those blogger names will still remain in my books no matter what you think of me, or my books, because I am still appreciative of the time you took from your busy schedule to even read the first book.” Ye-ah, you certainly appreciated all over the place. I would hate to see what you do when you aren’t appreciative.

In the book the heroine packed her vibrator when she went on the run in a national park. The author posted this picture on GR along with making remarks 2, 4, and 6 in the conversation that followed.

For someone who claims to avoid name calling and drama you certainly couldn’t prove it by your actions. Let’s take one last look at those actions:

You took offense at a 2 star review and asked your followers to flag it.

You left a review of your book which was basically a way to diss any one star review.

You posted some not very drama-free comments in various places.

You tried to alter the GR book database.

You wrote this “apology” wherein you explained how good and righteous you are and all those reviewers who didn’t like your book aren’t. An apology isn’t about you, you, you.

Hate to be a Debbie Downer, but today is a good day to get out my soapbox for one of my pet causes: suicide.

As many of you know, I am retired military (USAF/Civil Engineer Squadron/Readines & Emergency Management flight) due to health conditions. It pains me every time I hear about a death in my mil community, but it is especially hurtful when the death is by the hands of the deceased. I did two tours in Iraq and there are more veterans dying by their own hands then was lost in the war.

22 veterans per day are calling it quits on life which is 22 too many (and sources say the numbers are actually higher when data is analyzed).

September is Suicide Prevention Month and today (September 10th) is World Suicide Prevention Day. So I am just going to leave this here:

This may not be appropriate. But I have a two-year-old son, and thus I cannot afford to be proud right now. I’m sharing a link to a gofundme because a long period of un-and-underemployment has put my family in a very precarious situation. I didn’t originally plan to share this beyond a small circle of friends, but the court date for a possible eviction has been set for August 26th, leaving out a pay period that could make all the difference. If you will be kind enough to share this on your blogs, I would be forever grateful. I know everyone is struggling, and you may not be able to help- or want to, as you probably don’t know me that well, and I wouldn’t blame you. But I have to take a risk, for my family. Thank you. (The details on the page are a little vague, as it wasn’t going to be shared very widely originally, so there are no major personal details included to protect my family). Link: http://www.gofundme.com/4c2tfkc88

Anne Rice is at it yet again, it seems that she is fascinated by yours truly. People flock to me like pigeons to popcorn so I can see why the poor dear keeps posting about me, all this charisma is a heavy burden. But let’s see what else she’s posting about, shall we?

Um. Wow. Of course the negative reviews are fake?????Bullies patrol the site day and night? Oh, honey, you need to get a grip.Beauty’s Kingdom isn’t garnering the landslide of five star reviews you think it deserves and you want to blame a group of people that don’t agree with you because, after all, it’s much easier than facing the fact that your book just wasn’t that good.

That’s right, report the downvoters because they are obviously fake. Wait- how do you know who they are? Oh, that’s right, you have a little list of people who don’t kiss your ass feet and, what, give their names to your minions and tell them to go forth and report? Amazon hasn’t listened to you about the real name issue and they deleted your whole thread that was nothing but post after post of links to stgrb so now you are just pointing to various posters/reviewers and repeating to your fans to report, report, report.

Get a hobby- here’s an idea- write a book.

You investigated them? This from the woman who used to say that she couldn’t know everything posted on stgrb because it was too dense. Not to put too fine a point on it, Annie, but I wouldn’t say that anymore because after reading parts of your latest offering I have absolutely no trouble believing that. And since you can’t even read past the latest post on that site anything you claim about “investigating” the Top Reviewers Forum can be viewed with a very large dose of skepticism. And we all know that you conveniently ignore anything that doesn’t suit you, too, so you wouldn’t be a reliable source for anything.

Okay, one last thing that has been explained to you more than once, no one is required to use the same name on every site they use. There is nothing wrong with using one name on Amazon and a different one for GR, BL, FB, Twitter, and wherever. Nothing. People use different names different places for a variety of reasons but evidently the only reason you can think of is, well I’m not sure what you’re thinking. Are you?

Two years ago this month I started this blog. I had a vague plan of posting reviews and articles I found on books and book related matters. That happened but so did a lot of other things. Some interesting, some funny, some truly strange.

I don’t think any of us ever thought that we would be stalked or harassed or physically attacked. But that has happened. It’s easy at times like this to only dwell on the bad and lose sight of the good. I’ve met some incredible people doing this- readers, reviewers, bloggers, authors.

Of all the things I could conceive of doing when I started this, this was never anything I could have imagined. I’ve had a little problem in the last couple of days, and so I went to do something about it. What happened was not what I thought would happen.

We travel strange and fascinating roads. Tomorrow I will be going to a place that book bloggers have never considered a part of their experience but now with all the unrestrained actions of certain members of the book community it might become one. I get to go to my local office of the FBI.

I’m very, very sick right now so I am just posting a rant without links or screenshots, that will come later.

I am floored by the fact that no one seems to be thinking ahead. If Jay had left her KS up and she had gotten the money, what happens 3 months down the road? She has 14 books listed on GR and it seems they are not paying the bills. What would change in 3 months?

Bibliodaze has posted that Jay admitted to them on Twitter (now deleted) that Princess had sold 13 copies in stores. 13. I’m sure that since the clusterfuck has hit the fan that she has sold a few more but I doubt she is selling enough even after the rush to support “poor, poor Stacey”.

So what happens in 3 months? What changes? Does she think that somehow this newest book will pull her out of the downward spiral? If 14 can’t, I don’t think 15 will either. A nd presumably she would want to continue to write so where does the next three months expenses come from?

Jay has been in the business fulltime for a decade and that is amazing and wondrous and something other Indies would give their blood and kidneys for. But everything changes and she got caught in change. She must have had The Talk with her agent or publisher before all this, I doubt it was a complete surprise.

What did she do to address the issue? It sounds like nothing. And that’s her choice but she isn’t alone in this, she has two kids to think about. It seems that she thought that we should be feeding them and keeping a roof over their heads. Well, isn’t that what we are doing when we buy her books.

I would love to see where anyone, ANYONE said that she should work for free. She writes a book, we buy a book. THat’s how it generally works. Now Jay wanted to have her expenses up front paid for not by a publishing house but by her readers. It didn’t happen because she felt those of us who disagreed with her 3 month plan were somehow “vitriolic” or “bullying” or “tearing her apart”.

Bull… feathers.

What would happen in three months? Would she ask for another $10,500 for the next book? When would it end? And it would be of no benefit to Jay and her kids, somewhere she has to find a more stable source of income because, I am telling you and you know it’s true, that sooner rather than later people would tire of supporting a seemingly able-bodied woman just because she feels that working and working at writing are not compatible.

I realize that after 10 years going back into the workforce is scary, it’s damn scary at any time but putting it off and asking people who might be struggling themselves to keep you going is not a viable plan.

All those who are vilifying others for not jumping on the Jay bandwagon should be ashamed of themselves, no one here would let her kids starve. No one here would refuse to help an author in trouble.

But you must ask the question, what would have happened in three months?

Crazy quilts are unique and innovative quilts created from scraps of materials. My hope is for a world that uses all the scraps, rough cut diamonds and hidden treasures. I blog to make IPOC authors and their works more accessible.